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“There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.” Dorothy, “The Wizard of Oz” July 16, 2008 Today marks our One Year Anniversary as a Family! This day one year ago, the amazing Oscar was placed into my arms. I can feel the emotion build inside me and the tears swell in my eyes as I remember that joyous moment. I haven’t been able to write about that day because I can’t seem to find the words that fully capture the intensity of emotion we felt as we became brand new parents. I can honestly say that day was truly the happiest day of my life. Oscar, on the other hand, was not quite as thrilled, which is completely understandable. Oscar was a scared and confused little boy clinging to me for dear life. I can remember walking into the civil affairs office and seeing his sweet, sad face for the first time. When the nanny said go to mama, he looked over at me and held out his arms, grabbed onto me, and didn’t let go…. neither did I. Truly it was just beautiful, that particular moment, which I wish I could capture in time. It was sheer joy and it fills my heart with the most pure love imaginable. Since that incredible day, we have grown together as a family. We have had many challenges over the past year. Not everything was perfect and everything surely didn’t just fall into place. We had to work to bring us to where we are today – each of us, including Oscar. He had to learn to trust us and to believe that we weren’t going anywhere. We battled through night terrors and tantrums, but we have seen great improvement in those areas in the past several months. We are fortunate that Oscar is very loving and shows affection with us freely. We cherish his many hugs and kisses, and can’t believe how incredibly lucky we are to have such a wonderful child. Here’s a recap of the past several months: August 2007 Happy 2nd Birthday, Oscar! We had a small party with my niece and her boyfriend. Lots of cake and lots of presents! October 2007 Oscar had his cleft palate repaired and ear tubes inserted. Both surgeries were successful, and Oscar only spent 1 night in the hospital. We had a loooooooooong 6 weeks of liquid diet, but it was well worth it. His mouth healed beautifully. He will need to have his hard palate repaired around the age of 8 or 9. Of course, he will also need braces and other surgeries until he is a teenager. Oscar is a trooper, though, and we are confident he will meet each of these challenges in his young life. On October 28th, my father passed away after a long battle with emphysema. Sadly, since he lived far away, he didn’t get to meet Oscar. This is still difficult for me to reconcile with because I know I should have made the trip to see my father with Oscar. I am very sad that the two of them never got to meet; however, they did speak on the phone every night and shared many laughs. When we got home from China, I was afraid to travel too soon as to not disrupt Oscar’s adjustment period. Then we had many doctor appointments with the craniofacial team, and of course the surgeries. We also had 2 ear infections before the surgery. Anyhow, all this adds up to thinking I had time to get Oscar to Florida to meet his Pop-Pop. I do believe that my dad is somewhere watching over my boy and having a good laugh as I struggle with this thing called parenting! November 2007 We visited Florida for my father’s memorial service. Oscar got to meet his paternal grandparents for the first time. Oscar brought so much happiness to our grieving family during this time. His amazing spirit helped heal our hearts. December 2007 The holidays were a lot of fun for us. Oscar enjoyed seeing snow and opening lots of presents! It took Oscar over 2 hours to open all of his presents. Oscar added to his car, train, and puzzle collection. Those seem to be his favorite 3 things. Chris and I begin to realize that we want to continue to grow our family. With the loss of my father and Chris’s grandfather, we thought that maybe we should begin researching adoption once again.

Oscar last fall 2007 Oscar riding his first bike with daddy’s help – June 2008 Oscar in the sandbox Oscar and Mama share smiles – July 2008 Our soon to be daughter in Taiwan – June 2008 Our first family photo – Christmas 2007

Oscar began speech therapy, but we quickly go through 2 speech therapists. We don’t finally get a therapist that he responds to until January. Oscar continued to use sign language as his main form of communication. I can’t recommend teaching signing enough. It made a huge difference for Oscar. January – March 2008 Chris and I finally made a decision about adoption #2. We signed with an agency to help us bring home an older sister for Oscar. This time we are going to Taiwan! We are nervous, but very excited. We requested a girl between the ages of 4-6 years old. Oscar continued to improve in speech. We added a Mandarin class during this time, and he loves it! April 2008 On tax day, we got a very special email: a referral for our daughter in Taiwan! Oscar has a big sister on the way, and she is EXACTLY to the day 13 months older than he is. So we are soon to have a 3 and a 4 year old! Our dossier is quickly compiled and we send in our I600A. Fingerprints are completed quickly and we wait for our I -171 form. May-June 2008 We received more photos of our soon-to-be daughter. Oscar is excited and begins to somewhat understand that he is soon going to be living with his sister. We sent our first care package to Taiwan with a photo book and lots of goodies for our newest little sweetie. Oscar continues to show that he is a major flirt and knows how to work his charm. He knows that he can get lots of attention from the ladies by flashing those adorable little dimples! His speech is showing improvement, but he continues to sign along with speaking. His M and N words are near perfect as are his vowel sounds We are still encouraging him to use sign since he feels comfortable with it, but he also is showing more confidence with his speech. Oscar’s ear tubes fell out and he began the horror of miserable ear infections yet again. We switched ENT docs and get him rescheduled for ear tube surgery, but this time, with tubes that are stronger and work better for cleft affected kids. In early June, we travel as a family back to Florida. This time we visited with Chris’s mother who had pancreatic cancer. We were happy for her to have the chance to see Oscar again. We were hoping for good news and signs of improvement in her treatment, but sadly, we were disappointed once again. On June 17th, Oscar’s grandma passed away peacefully in her home after a 15-month battle with cancer. She was 61 years old. We miss her dearly, and only wish she could have been here to meet her granddaughter. July 2008 July 2nd marked the 10-year anniversary of my mother’s passing. She was 59 years old. We are saddened that neither of our children will have the joy of having a grandma. We do talk about both grandmas and Pop-pop and show Oscar photos. We are very lucky to have Chris’s father, who is an amazing grandpa, and we love him very much. We began to check out pre schools for Oscar for the fall. We have him and his sister on the waiting list for a pre school in January that offers Mandarin immersion. Half of the day in school is spent in English and the other half is in Mandarin. We have the option to start Oscar in the toddler class this summer and fall since he is not fully potty trained. Depending on my work situation, we make continue with this option. I’d love to see Oscar in pre school because I know it will only help with his speech. On July 17th, Oscar will go for surgery for his second set of ear tubes. We hate that he has to go under anesthesia again, but are hopeful that these tubes will last longer and will help with the fluid and ear infections. July 23rd is our little girl’s fourth birthday. We are hoping to name her Poppy and keep her given name as her middle name. We also want to add the name Joy as part of her middle name because her foster family had given her a Chinese name that translates to joy, happy. So we are currently calling her PJ. She’s going to have an extra long name like Oscar. But as they say, a child with many names is much loved. On our 3rd wedding anniversary, July 25th, we will be having our first Skype video online conference with our daughter in Taiwan. We are so excited to get to “meet” her! She apparently has been told about us and is excited and wants to know when will be coming to bring her home. We hope to travel by December this year. Oscar is going to be 3 years old next month. He is 37 inches tall and 30 pounds…long and lean! He is also incredibly handsome, and yes, I know I am biased! PJ is 38 inches tall and 37 pounds. So they are fairly close in size. Oh boy, are we going to have our hands full!!! We are so thankful to have our children and can’t imagine life without them. Oscar has truly been a dream come true…just like the sign says in his bedroom, “I am a dream come true.” He most certainly is. “Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.” Oscar Wilde

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